


Their House, So Quiet

by katikat



Category: Our Skyy (TV), รักไม่ระบุสถานะ | Dark Blue Kiss (TV)
Genre: Angst, Coronavirus, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Finale, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:08:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24185644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katikat/pseuds/katikat
Summary: They’ve been so careful - and yet! (Unbeta'd)
Relationships: Kao/Pete (Kiss: The Series)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 73





	Their House, So Quiet

**Author's Note:**

> I know nothing about the quarantine regulations in Thailand, so I based it all on how it’s done in my country. Just… hand-wave all inaccuracies. Creative licence is my Get Out Of Jail Free card!

The coronavirus? Is a _bitch_.

It’s invisible and it spreads like wildfire. One of Kao’s students brings it to school and then Kao brings it home and both he and Pete get infected. They’ve been so careful - and yet! When the test results come in, they’re so very, _very_ glad that they live alone and not with their parents anymore.

They’re put in quarantine - on house arrest, basically - with meds meant for handling the symptoms rather than curing the illness since nobody really knows how to cure this _damn_ thing in the first place, and they’re told to call if anything changes; the hospitals are too busy to admit people who don’t really need it. 

And Pete doesn’t need it. Headaches, muscle pain and fever, that’s what falling ill with COVID-19 feels like to him. It’s the worst case of flu he’s ever had, sure, and he feels just _awful_ … but, well, that’s it. 

Kao, though…

(Nobody will ever tell him why that _fucking_ bug hit Kao so hard and not _him_.)

“I’m sorry.”

That’s the last thing that Kao says to him - he only mouths it, really, soundlessly, voicelessly, because he simply doesn’t have enough breath to spare and say it out loud - before they take him away. _The fool. The idiot. The…_ Pete would be furious with him for… for _apologizing_ of all things - if he weren’t so _scared_.

He’s been scared ever since he woke up to Kao gasping for breath, to his lover uselessly trying to suck air into his starving, uncooperative lungs. The fear came with the realization that Kao, Kao was sick. That Kao wasn’t just feeling lousy, that it was really bad. _Serious_.

When the EMTs in their scary white suits and masks and shiny goggles finally leave and the front door clicks shut behind them with a terrifying finality, silence settles over the house again and Pete sinks to his knees. And he cries. He feels terrible, he aches all over and he’s hot and just a little dizzy - and also terrified and sad and lonely. He wants Kao but Kao’s not there with him and it’s… it’s _breaking his heart_.

(He never knew their house could be this quiet.)

Over the following weeks, Pete talks to his dad. And to Kao’s mom. And to his friends. Even Mork, his old arch enemy, calls him! He talks to all of them on the phone and through the door when they deliver groceries to him so that he doesn’t starve to death. He has so many people to talk to - but the one person he _wants_ to talk to, whose voice he _needs_ to hear and desperately so, is out of reach. He feels a loss as profound as when his mom and his little sister left him.

Kao ends up in the ICU and they keep him there for over a month. They put him on a ventilator, then on something else, some even more _sophisticated_ ventilator - when Pete realizes what that means (that Kao’s not getting any better, just the opposite), he smashes half the dishes in their kitchen in his rage and despair, so terrible… so _impotent_ \- and then, then they try out something new on him, some _experimental_ medication, as if he were a _guinea pig_ and not… not _Pete’s Kao_.

But it helps. _It helps!_

When they tell Pete - Pete keeps calling the hospital as often as they allow it, if he can’t be there _with_ Kao, _for_ Kao, then he at least needs to know - his relief is overwhelming that his head swims with it and there’s a buzzing, rushing sound in his ears. He sits down so hard he misses his chair and hits the floor, bruising his tailbone. He doesn’t care. Because Kao… _Kao is better_. Pete’s never heard more beautiful words spoken in his whole life.

(When he tells that to Kao later on, about his bruised ass, Kao laughs!)

It takes another week for Kao to get well enough to be able to talk to Pete. By then Pete’s given and confirmed a clean bill of health, yet when his phone rings and he picks it up and Kao’s face pops up on the screen so very suddenly, so very unexpectedly, he’s so overcome with… with _feelings_ that he gets a little dizzy.

Kao looks haggard and sallow and he must’ve lost good twenty pounds in the six weeks that Pete hasn’t seen him. Kao’s voice is raspy and cracked and he can’t get more than ten words out without having to put his breathing mask back on to pull oxygen into his rebellious lungs. He’s so weak that a nurse has to hold the phone for him. But when he smiles at Pete and croaks out, _“Hello, love,”_ Pete’s heart could burst. And when they hang up only moments later - Kao’s eyes are already falling shut again - Pete just sits there, clutching the phone hard in both hands, and shakes all over.

(He loves this man, he loves him _so much_!)

It’s two more weeks before Kao’s finally, _finally_ allowed to go home. Kao’s mom and Pete’s dad pick him up from the hospital because, though he’s now officially virus- _free_ , he’s nowhere near _healthy_. It’ll take time for him to get back on his feet. Time and _care_ \- that Pete’s determined to provide which means staying as bug-free as possible himself to protect Kao’s broken immune system. And that means venturing out as little as possible. Little price to pay for having his lover back home.

Their parents drop Kao off early in the morning when it’s still cool outside and the driveway is dappled in sunlight, passing through the trees. Pete’s waiting for them at the doorway, impatient, excited and a little nervous. _Why_ , he doesn’t know. He just… he wants Kao, _so badly_! 

In the end, Pete can’t wait anymore. He doesn’t let Kao’s mom help Kao out of the car, he runs up himself and he pulls the backdoor open and… and there he is, _his_ Kao, smiling up at him a little shyly with his eyes, his mouth hidden by a black mask. Pete takes Kao’s hand in his and pulls him out of the car carefully. And then he just… he _hugs_ Kao.

He wraps his arms around his lover and he buries his face in Kao’s neck and he breathes in Kao’s scent - now almost overwhelmed by sharp smelling chemicals - and when Kao hugs him back, something tightly wound in Pete’s gut loosens. Kao’s so thin - Pete can feel his ribs even through the hoodie Kao has on - and he’s leaning heavily against Pete, letting Pete hold him up… But it is Kao, his Kao and he’s back home. 

(“Hello, love.”)

Kao’s road to recovery is not smooth. His cough is unrelenting and his joints still ache. As it goes on, the doctors reluctantly admit that it might be permanent, the damage done to Kao’s lungs, at least. Pete doesn’t know what that would mean for Kao’s career as a teacher - he needs to be able to talk in class and the whole day long, really, whereas now, anything longer than a few sentences leads to a coughing fit - but they learn to work around it for now.

Moving their bedroom downstairs, inhalations and massages - these things, they don’t really fix anything but they lessen the strain on Kao’s body. And they make _Pete_ feel better. Which is something that Pete can’t seem to explain to Kao, that _helping Kao helps Pete_ , too.

Because there’s something… _off-kilter_ inside Pete. It’s been there ever since he held Kao in his arms, urging him to _breathe, just breathe, please_ while he called for help. In that off-kilter place, his fear that Kao will die resides, still eating away at him even now, when Kao’s back here with him, in his arms.

But when Pete’s allowed to help, when Kao lets him run his hands across Kao’s back, along his spine, massage his sore muscles and relieve him of his aches, it makes Kao’s presence real to Pete. Because in that moment, Kao’s right there, under his hands, warm and alive, even if a little too thin for Pete’s comfort - and Pete doesn’t have to think. 

(At least not about the bad things. Those are left for private moments, shh!)

And when Pete’s done with his massage, he kisses Kao’s shoulder lightly and Kao, half-asleep and boneless, smiles and mumbles into his pillow, “Love you.” And Pete’s heart is so light.

“Love you, too.”


End file.
